Herbal substances are known to be used as remedies for various ailments or for pleasure. Most often, herbal substances are ingested in the form of pills, tablets, brewed as teas, or by eating the plant itself. However, these methods are generally inefficient and/or ineffective as the herbs necessarily undergo biological degradation, via, for example, a person's stomach, before entering the bloodstream.
Inhaling an herbal substance is a fast and effective way to introduce the active ingredients in the substance into the bloodstream. Two methods are typically used for inhaling herbal substances: smoking and vaporizing. In general, smoking involves the pyrolysis of herbs or other materials. The most common example of smoking an herbal substance is the use of a cigarette to ingest tobacco. As the tobacco is burned and inhaled, its active ingredients are transported into the body's bloodstream through the lungs. In addition to the active ingredients, however, the pyrolysis of tobacco also releases harmful byproducts such as tar, carbon monoxide, ash, and other carcinogenic derivatives. These byproducts and the heat associated with combustion account for many of the ill-health effects of smoking.
In contrast, the process of vaporizing an herbal substance can provide a healthier alternative for active ingredient delivery. Vaporizers generally cause the atomization of water, medicine, or other substances into a heated air flow. When used to release the active ingredients of tobacco or other herbal materials, a vaporizer directs hot air through the plant material at a temperature sufficient to release the active ingredients into the air flow, but not so high as to combust the material. Preventing combustion reduces the incidence of the irritating and harmful effects of smoking because the vaporization process produces only negligible amounts of tar, carbon monoxide, or other harmful constituents.
Certain known vaporizers draw into the hot air used to vaporize the herbal substance potentially harmful gases emitted by components of the vaporizer such as the heater. Ingestion of such harmful gases into the lungs is inconsistent with the therapeutic benefits the vaporizer is intended to provide. Another drawback with some prior art vaporizers is that it tends to be difficult to install and remove the container used to receive the vapor. Yet other vaporizers are designed in a way that makes it difficult to conveniently remove vapor from the container in which it is captured. In some cases two-handed operation is required, and in other cases a separate mouthpiece must be installed after the container housing the vapor is removed from the vaporizer.